Beijing's new South China Sea islands

A year ago the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes traversed the South China Sea in an angling vessel and turned into the first writer to watch close-up how China is developing new islands on coral reefs. A couple of days prior he came back to the range in a little flying machine - inciting an enraged and undermining reaction from the Chinese Navy.

The scattered atolls, reefs and sand bars known as the Spratly Islands are an extremely troublesome spot to get to. Some are controlled by Vietnam, others by the Philippines, one by Taiwan, and afterward obviously there are those controlled by China.

Try not to expect a welcome from Beijing. Trust me, I've attempted. Just the Philippines will give you a chance to visit a little 400m-long scrap of area called Pagasa. It's just about sufficiently enormous to arrive a little flying machine on.     

Following quite a while of arranging and transaction, I was sitting in an inn room in Manila pressed and prepared to go when the telephone rang. It was my partner Chika.

"Our consent to arrive on Pagasa has been renounced!" she reported.

My heart sank. What had happened? Had the Philippine government been undermined? China's President Xi Jinping was going to touch base nearby. Maybe Manila didn't need a scene?

Truth be told it was more terrible. By one means or another Beijing had figured out what we were doing.

Next came a call from my editorial manager in London.

"The Chinese consulate has been on the telephone. They're notice of issues if the BBC tries to visit what they say is region wrongfully possessed by the Philippines in the South China Sea," he said.

I rationally kicked myself. How had they figured out? I ought to have been more cautious.

Thus for a week I was compelled to sit in my lodging room and watch while President Xi traveled every which way. At that point, more hysterical transaction… lastly the Philippine government yielded. We could go.

At 05:30 five of us accumulated on the runway at Puerto Princesa, on the Philippine island of Palawan. Two pilots, a specialist, Jiro my cameraman and me. Before us sat a small single motor Cessna 20.